Numerical Study of Combustion Characteristics and NO Emission in Swirl Premixed Burner

The combustion characteristics of an EV (Environmental Vortex) burner (double-cone burner) adopted in a gas turbines are numerically investigated. The mixing of fuel and air is analyzed for reduction of NO emission. To predict the correlation between NO emission and fuel-air mixedness, 1-step and 2-step chemistry models are adopted. The results calculated by 1-step chemistry showed that NO emissions increased by 2% in the case of degraded mixedness and by 169% in the case of improved mixedness, where the temperature in the flame zone was overestimated upstream of the cone. However, the corresponding results calculated by 2-step chemistry showed that NO emission increased by 3% and decreased by 5%, where the flame zone was not formed inside the cone. The latter results agree well with the experimental ones indicating an increase of 63% and decrease of 11% in the respective cases. Despite quantitative errors, NO emissions can be predicted reasonably by the application of the 2-step chemistry model adopted here and design modification of burner for NO reduction can be proposed based on the numerical data.